Our Hero Academia: Chapter 42
Up the Food Chain The door to the warehouse blew off its hinges. The various criminals inside looked towards it, shielding their eyes from the sudden bright light. The first person through the door was a young man, clad in a blue and dark gray body suit. They immediately began firing at him with their guns, but it didn't do anything to deter him. It was almost instant, how quickly and swiftly he dispatched all of the armed men. Those left over immediately surrendered. "Good job Zenji," said Mirai as she entered the warehouse, "next time leave some more for the rest of us." Zenji turned back towards his sister, a serious expression on his face. "Sorry, but I figured I could get it done faster myself if there was only three guys with guns." Griselle leapt down from railing to the upper level, carrying another criminal in her hands. She made a sound as if clearing her throat. "Four guys with guns." "Were there any hostages up there?" asked Mirai. "Nope." Griselle glanced around on the current floor, then turning back to Mirai. "I assume they're either down here, there's a basement, or we've hit an empty warehouse." "Kiba and Joho are hitting another warehouse as we speak," said Mirai, "I'll go check in on them. You two get these guys in cuffs and clear the warehouse." "Yes ma'am," said Zenji, taking a few pairs of cuffs from his sister and handing some to Griselle. Griselle took one of the cuffs and instantly put it on the criminal she'd taken down earlier. Shen then looked over to Zenji as she continued to cuff some of the remaining convicts. "Who would've thought we'd be dealing with something this big during an internship?" "I was hoping, but I didn't expect this." He finished cuffing his last man when a door on the floor opened. A man in blue military garb walked out, looking around when he saw the two fledgling Heroes. He immediately took out his gun and fired a bullet towards Griselle. Zenji jumped in the path of the bullet, taking it in the gut. He immediately went back down into the trapdoor. Griselle was shocked at the quick exchange that had taken place. "Zenji! Do-I-UGH!" She bolted towards the trapdoor, headed to see what was going on below their noses. "I'll deal with you later! Come on!" Griselle order as she jumped within the bowels of the warehouse. As she ran down the steps into the darkened area, she didn't see the man until it was too late. He chopped her on the back of the neck, grabbing her by the back and throwing her away. Zenji ran in after her, but he didn't fair any better, his first punch being easily repelled before he quickly kicked him in the chest. Pain had barely even been a factor in the situation, Griselle was left relatively unharmed from the attacks. His accuracy was shoddy, same with force, barely enough to cause any serious harm. But her neck was in immense discomfort. Despite this, once thrown away, she landed gracefully on her left foot before doing a flip, angling to face forward Zenji and the man squaring off. She rotated her body midair about 180 degrees and a noticeable distance between her and the ground. Griselle had done this for flare, but also allowed her to get a good aim on her target. Taking one of her pins into hand and using Zenji as a distraction and as a screen, she launched the pin forward. Zenji's body had blocked her movements and she angled the pin just to hit a pressure point. Spleen 10. A sharp localized strike like that of the pin could cause enough pain to cause the body to involuntarily pause. The least she could do at the moment was give Zenji an opening. Griselle's accuracy and calculations were always accurate, so one could only imagine her surprise when, despite the distraction Zenji provided, he caught the needle between two fingers, flicking it back towards Griselle with equal strength towards a pressure point in her neck to temporarily paralyze her. "Till next time little ones," he hissed. He dropped a ball onto the ground, smoke coming out of it. Zenji charged into the cloud it created, but the man was already gone. "Dammit!" Zenji shouted. He punched he ground in frustration, cracks forming on the ground. His eyes suddenly widened when he remembered Griselle, running over towards her to check if she was okay. "Are you alright?" Griselle had easily dodged the pin. She rubbed her neck, glancing at the direction the smoke was in. "That could've killed me..." muttered to herself. From the angle Griselle was facing, the pin could've been fatal. Thankfully, her reactions and instinct were up to par. As Zenji came running towards her, the adrenaline began to wash away. "I'm perfectly fine." Suddenly she remembered the events from earlier, changing her tone to win with anger and concern. "What about you!? What the heck was going through your head when you jumped in front of that bullet? Just because you have kinetic absorption now doesn't mean you just get to be reckless! What if it didn't work? You could've been seriously hurt!" She was scolding him, like a loved one does when you do something that could endanger you. "I mean..." began Zenji, "I can regenerate." Zenji opened his palm, the bullet in his hand. The entrance wound of the shot had already healed, even his suit had regenerated from the damage. He chuckled. "Did you forget?" "That shouldn't have mattered, you should want to store as much energy as possible!" Griselle put her hands on her head, turning around to survey the area. "Let's just continue the investigation." "What was I suppose to do? Let you get shot? I'm still full from breakfast so I have plenty of calories to burn. You could be dead." He sighed. "Alright. None of the other warehouses had a basement, at least not like this. "Let's get a good look around." Griselle began to shuffle through some of the items she'd found in the area. On a crime scene, everything could be labeled as important, yet a certain document stuck out. It depicted a specific location, with coordinates and a detailed enough surrounding for her to point it out. Whether this was a base of operations, or a potential victim, it was one step closer to finding the root of these kidnappings. "Zenji, look at this." "We need to get this back to the agency right away," said Zenji. "It looks like we've found their base of operations." ---- Jumper looked at his three interns. "You're telling me that you found the location of The Professor's base?" "Well, Zenji and Griselle did," said Joho, "I was at another warehouse with Kiba." "Are you absolutely certain?" asked Jumper. "We wanted to be absolute certain before checking with you," said Zenji. "We ran several checks. All of the material from the other warehouses has been getting shipped from this location. And the icing on the cake is that there were eyewitness reports of those other two Villains that attacked us the other day snooping around the area. At least that's the gist of it." "Alright," said Jumper, "I'll get to work on getting a warrant ASAP." He rubbed the back of the head as he walked away, utterly stunned. Griselle sat down as she removed her face mask, her glasses on underneath. She rubbed her head as she ran through the different scenarios she had encountered today. "How did you operation go Joho?" "Same as the first time we went on patrol," said Joho, "just easier. But enough about that. Tell me about that guy you ran in to. The one that knocked you both on your asses." "He was quick, amazing reflexes to say the least. Other than that, he didn't stick out much." Griselle sighed. "Not to mention I almost died twice." A quick thought racing through her mind. "So, I guess that's another one of the top agents in The Professor's group," said Zenji. He had moved over to a computer and started typing on it. "Based off of our descriptions, the database gave us names for each of the different guys we've run in to. Seishuu Tanaka A.K.A. Kuebiko; Damien Wolf, no known aliases; and Tsukai Hebi, A.K.A. Kobra. That was the guy that we ran into today. Don't underestimate him, apparently he's well-known for killing and kidnapping several Pros, completely by himself." "Any information on their quirks?" Griselle looked at Zenji, having failed to gather any information on any of the villains, she had little clue as to what she was up against. "Nothing on Kobra or Wolf," said Zenji, "but Tanaka’s Quirk allows him to create some kind of gas. No one knows for sure what it does." "Didn't you run through some of his gas during our encounter with him the other day?" Griselle wandered, "You didn't experience any differences?" "I stopped breathing the second it came out of those bombs," said Zenji. "My body can purify toxins at a drastically accelerated rate, but I still feel the effects for at least a few seconds. It's not fun." "My drones though," interjected Joho, "they read a unique compound within the gas. I don't know what it is though. Quirks are always strange in what they produce." Griselle's focus turned to Joho once she intervened, standing up from her seat. "Report the compound to a forensic, or even myself. I think I have enough knowledge in chemistry to figure this out with time. Remember, Quirks all have a scientific explanation behind their functions." "I'll think I'll head over to Aleta," said Joho, "she can probably help me synthesize something for the upcoming raid. I'll uh... leave you two alone for a bit." Joho walked out of the room, giving Zenji a brief smirk before she went through the door. "So..." Zenji murmured, "we've been spending a lot of time together lately, haven't we." "I guess." Griselle began heading towards the door, opting to help figure out the compound along with Aleta. "I'm gonna go help out with preparations, if these guys are as big and bad as the database shows, then we can't go in unprepared." "I should probably go too then," said Zenji, "see what kind of upgrades I can get for my suit, ya know, just in case." Griselle nodded towards Zenji, acknowledging his decision. She then left the room, a fierce and determined expression. Her feet were heavy, detailed with authority and force. "I am NOT going to be caught off guard again." She was tired of being a liability, of always needing to be saved by someone or something, she was tired of always needing help.